Article: 886 of sgi.talk.ratical From: (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe) Subject: Innu people of Nitassinan (Labrador/Quebec) fight for sovereignty Summary: 1000s of Canadian AF low-level military flights/year over Innu lands Keywords: in the absence of the sacred all life is sacrificed to false values Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc. Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1992 05:23:38 GMT Lines: 173 Five hundred years after the arrival of Columbus in the Americas, the Innu people of Nitassinan (Labrador/Quebec) came to Europe to speak out against the colonization of their land. . . . "Even though many people may feel there's no blame on Columbus and the people who came with him," says Chief Ashini, "for the colonization, the devastation, the genocide, the mass killings and environmental destruction and the diseases that came with them, they may say that's history -- that's like asking the Jews to forget what the Nazis did to them. And the same kind of oppression and violation of the rights of indigenous peoples are still going on today, not so obviously but more subtly . . . There are Dutch F-16s practicing over Innu land that are threatening the Innu way of life and the Innu land. The Dutch government is collaborating with the Canadian government in genocide . . . If the Dutch people remain silent, to the Innu it will seem they are condoning what is happening. We were encouraging them to speak out and tell their government they do not condone this.". . . Dutch, German and British military planes out of CFB Goose Bay made 6,656 low level training flights over Innu territory during the 1991 flying season. The Canadian Department of National Defence, which authorizes the training, expected 8,400 overflights in 1992. The Innu say that the flights interfere with their traditional way of life on the land, and they fear serious damage to the environment. after 500 years, indigenous people's land that they still retain, are used for all the "dirty work" of "democracy" and "freedom" and "liberty for all," like uranium mining, nuclear/toxic waste dumps/incinerators, nuclear bomb "testing," war "games" "pratice," and low-level military flight "testing" like what the Innu people have had to endure that shatters the peace of the earth and all creatures that they have lived with in harmony for the span of their collective memory. -- ratitor from PeaceNet via ACTIV-L & NativeNet: Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1992 09:15:09 GMT Sender: Activists Mailing List From: "(Rich Winkel)" Subject: Canada: INNU PROTESTERS ARRESTED To: Multiple recipients of ACTIV-L /** gen.newsletter: 158.1 **/ ** Written 11:06 pm Oct 26, 1992 by web:act in cdp:gen.newsletter ** INNU ARRESTED IN NEW CAMPAIGN Five hundred years after the arrival of Columbus in the Americas, the Innu people of Nitassinan (Labrador/Quebec) came to Europe to speak out against the colonization of their land. Four Innu, and 51 Dutch supporters, were arrested on the runways of Volkel Air Force Base in the Netherlands, in an act of non-violent civil disobedience. Meanwhile, 16 Innu women and children were arrested at Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay, near the Innu village of Sheshatshit. Dutch, German and British military planes out of CFB Goose Bay made 6,656 low level training flights over Innu territory during the 1991 flying season. The Canadian Department of National Defence, which authorizes the training, expected 8,400 overflights in 1992. The Innu say that the flights interfere with their traditional way of life on the land, and they fear serious damage to the environment. Though the government claims to be studying the environmental impact of the flights, no satisfactory report has yet been released; the research, according to Peter Armitage, "slides forward at a snail's pace." On the afternoon of October 12, Daniel Ashini, chief of Sheshatshit; schoolteacher Mani-Katinen (Kathleen) Nuna; Penote Michel; and Mani-Mat Gabriel, together with Dutch activists, entered Volkel Air Base. They were arrested and held for several hours, charged with mischief, and may have to return in six months for a trial. "Even though many people may feel there's no blame on Columbus and the people who came with him," says Chief Ashini, "for the colonization, the devastation, the genocide, the mass killings and environmental destruction and the diseases that came with them, they may say that's history -- that's like asking the Jews to forget what the Nazis did to them. And the same kind of oppression and violation of the rights of indigenous peoples are still going on today, not so obviously but more subtly . . . There are Dutch F-16s practicing over Innu land that are threatening the Innu way of life and the Innu land. The Dutch government is collaborating with the Canadian government in genocide . . . If the Dutch people remain silent, to the Innu it will seem they are condoning what is happening. We were encouraging them to speak out and tell their government they do not condone this." A short time later, while about 25 Innu were picketing at CFB Goose Bay, young Janet Gregoire found a hole in the security fence. "I told her there wasn't enough people," says her mother, Rose Gregoire, herself a long-time activist, "but she just said, `Well, Mom, I'm going anyway', and the kids followed her. She was telling them all to be good and to be non-violent." In all, 16 women and children entered the base. All of them were arrested, but only those over the age of twelve were charged -- Janet Gregoire, Angela Penashue, Pamela Hurley (at 13 years old, the youngest to be charged), Yvonne Nuna, Rose Marie Pokue, and Debbie Webb, an Inuit woman who was visiting the community. Their trial is scheduled to take place on December 1. These actions are seen as a resumption of the Innu campaign against the low level flight training, and an attempt to step up pressure on the governments involved as the date for the renewal of the agreements for allied use of the base draws closer -- the agreements will be either renewed or allowed to lapse in 1996. ** End of text from cdp:gen.newsletter ** |Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1992 23:24:00 PST |Reply-To: nn.nativecan%gnosys.svle.ma.us@tamvm1.tamu.edu |Sender: "NATIVE-L Issues Pertaining to Aboriginal Peoples" | |From: NativeNet%gnosys.svle.ma.us@tamvm1.tamu.edu |Subject: Re: The ACTivist, 8#11, November 1992 |X-To: nn.nativecan@gnosys.svle.ma.us |To: Multiple recipients of list NATIVE-L |Original-Sender: MAILER-DAEMON@web.apc.org /* Written 11:17 pm Oct 26, 1992 by act in web:gen.newsletters */ /* ---------- "The ACTivist, 8#11, November 1992" ---------- */ NITASSINAN NEWS Actions in support of the Innu took place in three Canadian provinces, over the weekend of October 24-25. In Toronto, a crowd of over 50 people marched from City Hall to Progressive Conservative Party Headquarters. Statements from Peter Penashue, President of the Innu Nation, Napess Ashini, an Innu hunter, and three of the young women arrested on October 12 were read to the demonstration. Signatures were collected on ACT's 'Support the Innu' petition in Oakville, Guelph and Peterborough. In Montreal, the Centre de ressource sur la nonviolence organized a series of public forums for Disarmament Week, addressing the Innu issue among many other. And in St. John's, Newfoundland, some 50 people demonstrated at the St. John's City Hall. Meanwhile, it has been discovered by supporters of the Innu that the town of Happy Valley/Goose Bay has hired a public relations firm to help `sell' low level flight training to the people of Labrador. The firm, Strategic Concepts Ltd., has received at least $28,328 from the town council. The company was hired to prepare a promotional package on military flight training, prepare a response to the environmental assessment process, and do general PR work on the military flight training issue. Strategic Concepts has links with Saga, a company that has done public relations work for John Crosbie, for a waste disposal site for American garbage at the old Allbright Wilson phosphorus mine at Long Harbour, for the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland since Mount Cashel sex abuse scandal, and other unsavoury customers. Finally, in community news, the Innu Nation held elections in August. Peter Penashue was re-elected as President. In an interesting and encouraging development, the organization decided that their board should include an equal number of male and female members (it had previously been made up mostly of men). -- At some point or other if we survive, there's going to have to be a massive non-cooperation with our society which is producing death. . . . And if we are ever to break out of the militaristic society that we live in--and that *is* what I think is our basic aim, because that's what distorting every- thing--it's going to have to be through an across-the-board non-cooperation effort. -- Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Vancouver, 1986